Tatsha Robertson

Tatsha Robertson is a journalist and co-author of Media Circus: A Look at Private Tragedy in the Public Eye, with Kim Goldman, the sister of Ron who was killed alongside Nicole Simpson, the wife of OJ Simpson. The book focuses on the grieving process of victims of high-profile tragedies. She is currently writing a new book with Harvard professor Ronald Ferguson that explores the parental behaviors that lead to academic success in children.

Tatsha always wanted to be a writer. She watched her mother write poems and plays that were performed by kids in their Boston neighborhood. When they moved to South Carolina where her mother’s family is from, the first grader began to hone her own writing skills by creating little stories about girls and dogs. She even commissioned her best friend to complete the art. As she grew older, her focused turned toward journalism, though fiction was still a dream. Each year, her mother would buy her a tape recorder for Christmas. Tatsha would interview anyone who’d sit down with her.

She joined her high school newspaper staff and she’d later earn a MA in Journalism from Ohio State University, where she was the recipient of an academic fellowship. She now has more 20 years of experience handling investigative, feature and news stories for digital and print media. As the first female New York City Bureau Chief for The Boston Globe, from 1998 – 2006, she covered the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and many other major news events.

Additionally, she has been an adjunct instructor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU from 2006 to 2014. Since 2006, Robertson had been a frequent guest on national media, appearing on CNN, FOX, Court-TV, MSNBC, Dateline, HLN and the Today Show. After leaving the BostonGlobe, Robertson served as Deputy Editor and Interim Managing Editor at Essence Magazine from 2006 to 2010 where she developed the magazine’s focus on investigative journalism, earning its current status as an important voice on news and political coverage. After establishing Essence’s Washington bureau, she was one of the first journalists to interview President Obama in the Oval office. It was also at Essence that she developed and edited award-winning investigative journalism on two culturally significant topics: the achievement gap and missing Black children.

Robertson joined People Magazine as the Senior Crime Editor where she led coverage of the Newtown and Boston Marathon tragedies. She forged a partnership among the magazine, Anderson Cooper (CNN) and the Cartoon Network to address the national bullying crisis, resulting in a lengthy article in People and extensive coverage on CNN, as well as an award from the National Multicultural Institute.

Since becoming an editor, Robertson has won many awards, including Time Inc.’s Henry Luce Award for Public Service (2008, 2010, 2013), 10 awards (of which 6 were for first-place) for news coverage from the National Association of Black Journalists; New York Association of Black Journalists, and was a finalist in the Henry Luce Award for Reporting (2014).